POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

[100million]

I Would LIKE to know..... How many bricks people Bought or used for there oven and what size their oven is and if they cut them in a wedge (Cut them) or used half pieces (which means you have to uses more mortar)....

This will help FB in knowing how many bricks they should include with there kits....I feel there total is a little short.

CAN you Please Pin this to the top of the thread so it does not get buried? This way people will comment and others will use this info. If you feel it needs to be in the Newbie Forum, Tools, Tips and Techniques ,Getting Started or Pompeii Oven Construction.....Feel free to move it.


Well I will Start:::::

I use 149 brick for my floor, dome, enclosure. I Cut in half and then wedges, and I did not screw up more then 5 bricks that I had to throw away and never use.

My Oven was 29"

[eprante]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

I bought 280, I ended up using 260, I cut 20 bricks into 1/3's at about the 7th course but they ended up not working as well as the 1/2 bricks I was using, so they ended up getting wasted except for a few in the last rings. My oven is a 42" diameter Pompeii. Other than the 20 I cut into thirds, I wasted very few( though some may look at my brick laying and say that I should have wasted more of them).
Eric

[Dino_Pizza]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

My 42" oven:
275 bricks (then I bought about 10 more, 2 left over, unused)
Tapered: YES (a bit sloppy but still tapered-sides and bottom to save mortar)

NOTES: I probably wasted about 10 bricks due to bad cuts that couldn't be used in other places or change in the vent transition and 1" reveal cut into the top arch bricks and side walls. If the reveal wasn't cut right, I had to throw out the bricks in these complex cuts.

[kebwi]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

[Ouch, that's a lot of their/there discrepancies in one post. ]

Lesse, I bought 250 bricks and built a 36" oven. I cut my bricks very tightly on multiple axes. I would say I have -- hmmm, this is an estimate -- 30 or 40 left over plus 5-10 worth of scraps and 5-10 worth of accumulated residue/dust from the tile saw).

Cheers!

[nissanneill]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

My 40"Pompeii used 140 bricks for the dome and hearth. The first vertical soldier course were full bricks, all other courses were half bricks. The front arch and chimney void were paving wedge bricks and clay house bricks.

Neill

[SCChris]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

I was about 280 on my 43"

Chris

[Raffy]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

I have a 39-inch (1 meter) oven. I bought 200 firebricks and used all but 1, seriously! I'll keep it as a momento. No wasted brick I can remember. In fact, I used most of the scraps for strange cuts and shapes that were needed for the dome-arch connections. Only waste I have is the cut offs from tapered bricks. I'm gonna pound them into sand for fireclay Reduce, Reuse, Recycle for the next oven build hahaha

Full soldier course, half bricks for 1st to 8th course, tapered every other brick for succeeding courses til keystone. The keystone was actually made from two scraps of brick stuck together.

[glindhout]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

My original order was for 250 bricks, and I just picked up another 50 since it looks like I might run short... I'm using tapered bricks (which wastes bricks) but saves on the mortar. I'm using mostly 1/3 bricks after the 8th course...

Greg

[RTflorida]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

Bought 215, used 207 for my entire 36" oven (dome, hearth, entry arch)

All brick cut to fit, no halves. I was able to get 2 wedges out of each brick, in some cases 3 (I was a stickler for staggering my joints, so no two bricks are exactly the same size).
No waste, except for small chunks and slivers (and a whole lot of paste from the tile saw).

RT

[gregarious]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

I bought the 42inch Pompeii Kit from FB and it included 140 bricks and 20 floor tiles (double sized bricks). This was no where near enough! They were generous in that they actually sent 144 bricks, though the specs indicated 140. In order to build a hemispherical oven with 21 inch radius/42 inch diameter, with soldier course around the floor, according to FB plans- we had to order an additional 40 bricks. I worked with a very good mason and he had almost no waste (there was a small handful of brick pieces -rubble really- at the end, and we used every usable offcut). Even with the additional 40 bricks we needed about 20 more locally sourced standard duty firebricks for the flue take off. So altogether if I had built the floor, dome entry arches/vent landing and flue take-off with firebrick- it would totalled 238 bricks. If I were to do it again- I would insist on 250 brick equivalent at the start, since there is nothing more frustrating than seeing the dome half-built and counting every scrap of brick to see if there will be enough!

[100million]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

I bought the 42inch Pompeii Kit from FB and it included 140 bricks and 20 floor tiles (double sized bricks). This was no where near enough! They were generous in that they actually sent 144 bricks, though the specs indicated 140. In order to build a hemispherical oven with 21 inch radius/42 inch diameter, with soldier course around the floor, according to FB plans- we had to order an additional 40 bricks. I worked with a very good mason and he had almost no waste (there was a small handful of brick pieces -rubble really- at the end, and we used every usable offcut). Even with the additional 40 bricks we needed about 20 more locally sourced standard duty firebricks for the flue take off. So altogether if I had built the floor, dome entry arches/vent landing and flue take-off with firebrick- it would totalled 238 bricks. If I were to do it again- I would insist on 250 brick equivalent at the start, since there is nothing more frustrating than seeing the dome half-built and counting every scrap of brick to see if there will be enough!

Thanks for your honesty ....I would like to know from other before voicing my honest thoughts......

[SCChris]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

For fun I ran some quick calcs.

The number of bricks required can vary greatly depending on how the brick cutting is approached.

This first calculation is based on a custom cut 42” ID oven where dome bricks are tapered front to back and are then cheek cut on both sides to create a very tight grount line. The calculation here dependes on the circumference of the outside course being laid. Everything here assumes a standard US firebrick of 2.25 by 4.5 by 9 inches. The next calculation assumes no cutting other than halving the brick and applying mortar.

The Dome bricks are calculated using the outside circumference of a 42” diameter oven with a 9” soldier course and 15 total courses.

A 20” wide oven entry and 22 inch outer entry with angle iron header placed at 63% of the dome height to support the opening.

The entry wall brick count is based on the entry being 18 inches deep, 2 bricks, from the front entry exterior to the oven interior.

A 90 degree arched entryway with a radius of 15.5 inches, to span the 22 inch outer entry.

184.4 Total bricks in dome
22.0 Bricks in entry wall (18” deep)
9.0 Bricks in a 90 degree entry archway uses a half arch brick in the front and back to create a 9” gap for smoke collection leading to the chimney.
10.0 Bricks in the floor of the entry 22”x18”
34.0 Bricks in the 42” oven floor. (Pi times the radius squared)
259.4 Total bricks, add 15% for good luck and you get a total of 298 bricks, this is about what a 42” custom cut oven requires and this seems to be supported by those posting.


In an oven dome is built with half bricks and no additional cutting, the amount of bricks needed is almost 60 bricks less.

If 126 bricks are used for the dome and 31 additional bricks for the above entry sidewall and archway, the total rises to 157 total bricks not including floor needs.

The archway would require something less than the 9 indicated since they would not be tailored in this half brick example, something like 7 is more likely, and it’s also more likely that another steel header or two would be used to support the chimney structure.

Calculating the surface of a sphere. (surface area = 4XPi X Radius squared)

The sphere brick requirements are calculated using the surface area of the inner sphere (surface area = 4XPi X Radius squared) divided by 2, an oven equals a half sphere.

The inner hemisphere area of a 42 oven is 2771 sq. in. Now remove the entry opening area (20X13.25) and the brick face area of the inner dome is 2506 square inches. The approx face area of a brick is about 10 square inches, so 2506/10 = 251 brick faces. Divide this number by 2, for a 4.5 inch thick oven using half bricks, and the total number of bricks needed is 126. The entry / chimney support can use a fair number of bricks and this becomes a design choice and needs to be added to the 126 as does the floor.


Chris

[rl2sing]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

I bought 220 for a 39" oven which for some unexplained reason expanded to 40"+. I used half bricks for soldiers and the first 5-6 chains with periodic wedges above that. I have 16 bricks left.

Lee

[DaveW]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

I finally got around to counting them up. 280 for a 38 inch dome. However, I have a large pile of leftover scraps.
Dave

[lwood]

Re: POLL........How many Fire Bricks did you use for your oven?????

60" oven and over 1000 - 3/4" x 3.5 x 7.5 brick were used and a lot of waste. All cut free hand with a angle grinder. The brick are just the local fire brick which are basically terra cotta tiles. Of course I had a lot of help, that's one of the benefits of the Phillippines....labor is cheap.